Queer(ing) freedom: rewriting coming-out narratives in contemporary Maghrebian literary production

Abstract

This article analyses how contemporary writers of Maghrebian descent make use of autofiction to make visible queer desires and sexualities which exist in a perpetual state of marginalization. Using autofiction, a genre of literary expression which has been popular in the Francophone world in the past two decades, writers like Abdellah Taïa, Rachid O., and Nina Bouraoui complicate the idea of coming out. Although it might appear as though they are reproducing Western ideals of coming out as sine qua non to a fortification of a queer identity, they offer a different nuancing of what disclosing one’s sexual identity in the Maghreb means and entails. In their coming-out literary narratives, these writers articulate a practice of freedom which liberates the queer body from both Western modes of considering queerness and Maghrebian logics that marginalize and render invisible queer lived experiences.

Keywords:

• Body
• freedom
• Maghreb
• queer
• sexuality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 This and other translations in this article are my own.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gibson Ncube

Gibson Ncube lectures in the Department of Modern Foreign Languages at Stellenbosch University. He has published widely in the fields of comparative literature, gender, and queer studies as well as cultural studies. He is the author of the books La Sexualité Queer au Maghreb à Travers la Littérature (2018) and Queer Bodies in African Films (2022).